INDIA bloc leaders on Saturday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his comments on the Opposition trying to appease Muslim voters through “mujra”, which is a form of dance that emerged during Mughal rule.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the INDIA bloc is going to win over 350 seats in total in the Lok Sabha polls.

Here is a look at today’s top developments:

  • The kind of language used by the prime minister against the INDIA bloc, accusing them of pandering to the Muslim vote bank, has never been used by anyone holding the post, said Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. “I wish to declare on its soil [Bihar] that I will foil the plans of the INDIA bloc to rob SCs, STs and OBCs [Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Class] of their rights and divert these to Muslims,” Modi said at a rally on Saturday. “They may remain enslaved and perform 'mujra' to please their vote bank.”At a rally in Varanasi, Vadra said that Modi’s real personality is now being revealed and he has insulted the Opposition. Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi shared Modi’s video clip on X and wrote, “Get well soon, Modi ji”. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to social media to say: “The dignity of the prime minister's language and the seats of the BJP.”
  • Six persons, including four women, suffered injuries after clash between supporters of two candidates outside a polling station in Mendhar sub-division in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on Saturday. Poonch is part of the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency where polling took place in the sixth phase on Saturday. “The altercation was stopped in time and an FIR [first information report] has been lodged in the matter,” the office of deputy commissioner, Poonch, said on X. “Polling did not get interrupted at any time and went on smoothly.”
  • The Trinamool Congress on Saturday shared pictures on X showing five Electronic Voting Machines with a tag of the Bharatiya Janata Party on them in West Bengal’s Bankura. However, the Election Commission responded to the post saying that at the time when the machines were being commissioned, common address tags were signed by the candidates and their agents present. “And since only BJP Candidate's representative was present during that time in the commissioning hall, his signature was taken during commissioning of that EVM and VVPAT,” the poll regulator said. It added that all the norms were duly followed during commissioning and it was done entirely under CCTV coverage.
  • “The INDIA alliance has already crossed the halfway mark of 272 seats and is on course for a tally of over 350 seats in total,” Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh claimed on Saturday. The Opposition leader said that with the conclusion of six phases of the elections voting for 486 seats is over and the BJP is completely losing in the southern part of India while reducing to half of what it currently has in the rest of the country. The final phase of voting is due on June 1 while the counting of votes will take place on June 4.

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